Posts by ThatOne

Law secretly drafted by ChatGPT makes it onto the books

Re: Perhaps ...

> That might make it more difficult to try and sneak political chicanery

Just hide your cheating in the training data - even if your adversaries have a strong suspicion, it's impossible to prove.

Anyway, what is the point of using ChatGPT here? Just formulate the law in proper language for the terminally illiterate? In this case it's no better than a oversized grammar/spelling checker and pretty harmless (assuming somebody proofreads). Only if you ask it to come up with a law according specific criteria, that is utterly dangerous, because all will depend on the training data: For instance train it with colonial era documents and it will create some surprising law propositions...

Honda cooks up an electric motorbike menu, with sides of connectivity

Re: Why?

Because nowadays there is usually some contract clause which says that if you don't want to pay some exorbitant, punitive price, you have to follow the rules.

You will need to change the batteries eventually...

Re: Why?

The problem is it will void your warranty, and thus potentially bite you down the road (no pun intended), for instance when you'll need to change those batteries.

Also the manufacturers will know how to make it extremely difficult (see iPhone component replacement). After all, a modern e-bike isn't just a bike with electrical propulsion, it's a computer on wheels...

Re: Why?

Same answer as to the previous post: You might not want it (obviously), but their marketing department does, very much so, so guess what will actually happen...

The only way to make it stop would be to not buy any "connected" crap, but of course that won't ever happen, there are enough fools out there who claim they don't have anything to hide, or who simply don't care... And by "enough" I mean a "vast majority". The rare eccentrics who don't like being fleeced and spied upon are a tiny, insignificant minority, a rounding error. Most people will manage to convince themselves this is for their own good, and marketing is actually doing them a favor. Because, well, marketing said so...

Re: Goodbye

"Understand the need of customers" is marketing speech for "need to build an advertising profile we can resell". So obviously it's a case where you don't want it, but they do, and since it's them who build the bikes, guess who'll win at the end...

UEFI flaws allow bootkits to pwn potentially hundreds of devices using images

You don't need UEFI to display a BIOS logo. IIRC my old 486DX2 already did that (and one of the first things I did was disable it, because it delayed Boot for 5 seconds so you could admire said logo...).

Share your 2024 tech forecasts (wrong answers only) to win a terrible sweater

Rust in the kernel is a humidity problem. Windows has never been waterproof.

Re: There's an error in the main article

Nah, cats would never waste any energy on such a pointless undertaking. Rule the planet? What for? Would they get more food/sleep/petting/other pleasant things? Not really, they would just have to spend more energy for about the same end result.

Hubble science instruments still out after going down 3 times in a week

Send it into high orbit and I can guarantee it won't nag you anymore...

Re: I hope someone will step up to the plate

> So you are asking for billionaires to spend 1-2 percent of their net wealth on pure science?

If you were indeed replying to me, no, I definitely don't. My whole point was that it won't ever happen, for many reasons, including but not limited to those you mention.

If you are replying to the OP, I think he was just confused by all the triumphant sound bites various wealthy people have emitted lately. It might sound like they want to take up the torch, but they most certainly won't. If at all, they will just explore the aspects which might yield an interesting return on investment (mostly, putting commercial satellites into orbit). Yes, Musk claims wanting to colonize Mars, but that's just another sound bite, unlikely to happen, for many (actually an awful lot of) reasons, economic, technical, scientific, legal.

_{(Didn't downvote you though.)}

Re: Boosting

> The upgrades have replaced vast amounts of the telescope over the years

That was the point of former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin: It's actually not that old, given most parts (at least the important ones) have been all replaced over time.

Also, the cost of fixing a flywheel will always be way inferior to the price of a new flywheel (same price), plus the cost of a new mirror, plus a new set of instruments plus all the support hardware plus everything else. You usually don't throw the car away when you have a flat tire, it's cheaper to just change that tire...

Re: I hope someone will step up to the plate

> No use talking to politicians, so billionnaires is where it's at.

What have billionaires ever done for us?... :-p

Seriously, beyond emitting newsworthy sound bites? I haven't noticed any attempt at selflessly spending some 10-20 millions for pure science. IIRC that was about the price of a service mission, back when the Shuttles were still operational. Nowadays it's most likely a lot more expensive, if at all possible (Is there currently any vessel able to reach higher orbits while being certified for human passengers? I don't think so.).

Potential sat-bothering cannibal coronal mass ejection slams into Earth's atmo tonight

NOAA's Aurora 30 minutes forecast

For those who don't know about it: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast

Adobe's buy of Figma is 'likely' bad for developers, rules UK regulator

Re: Call me a heretic

> Websites were not meant to be complicated.

Nonsense! Absolute nonsense! How will you justify that utterly bloated bill if it's all so simple the client's nephew could code it?

Good webpages need to weigh upwards of 20 MB/page, and require the use of at least 3 external code libraries (for "prestige projects" this can reach over 12. NoScript is an eye-opener). And that's before adding advertisement.

> will reduce innovation for designers and other creative types

Isn't that what Adobe is all about?

Logitech's Wave Keys tries to bend ergonomics without breaking tradition

Re: MODERN Membrane-Mechanism Keyboards

> I was writing about the Dell keyboards which came with their desktop systems

I see. No, we didn't have any problems with those indeed (but then again neither did we with a dozen other brands either).

Re: MODERN Membrane-Mechanism Keyboards

> I'm thinking of Dell keyboards from the early 2000s.

Very bad experience with those. In 2000 we all got a brand new Dell laptop (semi-expensive professional kit, don't recall the exact model), and the keyboards of all those laptops lasted pretty exactly till the end of the warranty (dead keys). And we had quite different user profiles, some were on their keyboards all day long, some only used it an hour or two a day. Still, they failed just the same. For a while we knew who wrote what because of which letters were missing, but it became a major handicap and we got ourselves Toshibas, which worked just fine for many years.

Now I have a Dell again (a definitely not cheap one!), and the keyboard is a nightmare. Shallow, imprecise, and despite the anti-rebound setting, I regularly need to correct doouble and trrriple characters... I definitely regret my old Toshiba Qosmio's mechanical keyboard I've comfortably written thousands of pages on...

Re: Tat

> every mouse I buy, gets its outer coating disintegrate within a year or two

Acid sweat due to an Alien in your ancestry? The mouse I'm using right now is an old Logitech MBJ58 from around 2000, having extensively traveled and having been used almost daily for some 20 years on several consecutive laptops. The outer top coating is slightly polished by use, but otherwise as new. On my desktop computer I have another Logitech wheel mouse, an even older one I think. Also slightly polished by use, but otherwise in excellent condition. In my experience those old cheap Logitech mice are (were?) indestructible.

_{(Didn't downvote you though.)}

Re: The absence of backlighting

> muscle memory, autocorrect and the delete key does the rest

I have written lots of long texts and a couple books, and yet I still like to see where I type: While typing I look at my keyboard, then, while gathering my ideas for the next phrase, I check the screen and check what I've actually typed. Muscle memory only builds up if you use one single keyboard for extended times, else it's more counterproductive than helpful, especially with laptops. Autocorrect? Well, I'll pretend I didn't hear read that... As for the "Delete" key, if you have to use it a lot you'll be typing just as slowly as somebody using the single-finger-hen-picking mode...

I have a backlit keyboard on my latest laptop, not because I wanted one, just because it came with one, and I admit it has grown on me. It's very convenient for typing in low light, and nullifies any stray reflections on the keys.

HP printer software turns up uninvited on Windows systems

"Exciting opportunities"

Wait till all those people receive the HP printer Microsoft bought for them (with their money of course)...

Meta yanks VR headset's strap-on booster battery after charging bricks it

"Hothead"

> A misbehaving Li-ion on your noggin - what could possibly go wrong?

So, henceforth when you see a skull on fire, it's not necessarily Ghost Rider, it could be a VR user...

Experienced Copilot help is hard to find, warns Microsoft MVP

> Almost nobody has used it, or knows it well, so beware of consultants bearing cred

B-But, I have 10 years of experience with Copilot!

_{Why is it always 10 years? Apparently 9 years 11 months isn't good enough for HR.}

Tiny11 shrinks Windows 11 23H2 down to pocket size

All you need is Windows ♫

> which has storage starting at 64GB, much of which is consumed by a standard installation of Windows 11

Why, you don't need anything else, do you...

How to give Windows Hello the finger and login as someone on their stolen laptop

Re: The linked (thank you) article is great ...

> Still not convinced the USofAians speak English though.

"USofAians" speak American! Good old patriotic American like our forefathers (and Jesus)!

/s

Windows Server 2022 update gave ESXi host VMs the blue screen blues

Standard Operation Procedure

> Microsoft issuing updates that break key functionality should give administrators pause for thought. When it comes to Windows, expect the unexpected.

I disagree: Microsoft pushing updates that break something has become quite expected unfortunately...

"Move fast (in circles) and break things" is their new motto.

Another month, another bunch of fixes for Microsoft security bugs exploited in the wild

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

...and we're always thankful to Microsoft for this opportunity.

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

Sorry but on my computer it does take a long time, and usually wants to reboot 1-3 times. Every month. See above for details.

And there is nothing wrong with my Windows that wouldn't be self-inflicted: I only keep Windows (and keep it updated) for BIOS/Firmware updates (i.e. I don't use it, I don't install stuff on it, it's pretty much the vanilla Dell installation the computer came with, just on a slightly smaller partition (still 390 GB free in case you wonder))...

Re: Ah, Patch Tuesday...

> No Windows PC with the recommended hardware for the OS will take 3 hours to update.

It doesn't sound too much for a Windows having missed several updates. On my fairly fast computer (Alder Lake (12 Gen) with fast SSDs (Samsung 980 PRO)) the last monthly updates, a couple days ago, took over half an hour (and 2 reboots!). I know, because I was sitting there waiting...

Updates on Windows (note the wording) always take a lot of time compared to updates on Linux (that's Windows 11 Home running on bare metal, no VM), not to mention the reboots (at least one, often two or more). I'm always wondering what it is doing. I also wonder if reinstalling the OS from scratch wouldn't be quicker...

NASA's Lucy probe scores a threefer as it flies by first target in 12-year mission

This phrase is much too vague anyway, and likely to be misunderstood.

"Trojan asteroids" isn't a specific group of asteroids named "Trojan" (capital T), "trojan" is an adjective for asteroids sharing the orbit of a larger body (usually hanging around Lagrange point L5). AFAIK all planets have some, including Earth.

The correct formulation would had been "will study Jupiter's trojan asteroids" (note the lower-case t).

Astroboffins spot high-power 8b year old radio burst from pre-Earth event

Re: "we find that more than half of what should be there today is missing"

> more than half of what we can detect is missing

Nah, that would be grand larceny... Actually it's more like we somehow can't detect a huge part of what we calculate must be out there. So far nobody has a satisfactory explanation as to why that is, so in the meantime we nicknamed that apparently missing mass "dark matter" (but it could be anything).

It's full of stars! Galactic atlas catalogs 400k Milky Way neighbors

> The atlas covers 20,000 square degrees, covering around half of the night sky.

Next on the list: The day sky!...

Royal College considers no confidence move after Excel recruitment debacle

Re: Experts

Uuh, quite some radioactive pollution where you live, isn't it...

Musk, Yaccarino contradict each other on status of X's election integrity team

Re: Well...

Social media is the noise-to-signal ratio pushed to 11: Pure noise.

Getting to the bottom of BMW's pay-as-you-toast subscription failure

Re: snooty

To buy one you need to be even more offensive than them...

_{Which explains a lot of things.}

Re: snooty

> then asked how I expected to pay for it

How unprofessional... Real luxury hardware sellers wouldn't had raised a brow even if you had arrived in a nightgown: You could be some utterly eccentric (and still extremely rich) guy, they can't know. Actually asking you how you expect to pay it shows arrogance and an absolute lack of class. I would had answered "with money, if that's okay with you".

Unity talks of price cap and fees for only largest games developers

> "Confusion" was a bit of a weasel word

You're way too kind. It's actually simply insulting (as in: "you're too dumb to understand the genius of our plan, you overreacting, irrational morons").

It is indeed just a passive-aggressive fake apology.

Ego and greed, an explosive mixture

> games engine biz admits mistakes

But won't stop making them. They're not even doing damage control, apparently rather bluntly claiming they are sorry those lunatic, overreacting customers didn't understand the genius behind their plan. Poor Unity! Baaad customers!...

Scientists spot startlingly close black holes in Hyades star cluster

Well, given that any star bigger than (around) 3 solar masses eventually collapses into a black hole, they must be extremely common. It's just we can't see them unless they misbehave... And given the tiny size of stellar black holes, their gravitational lensing would be extremely difficult to spot.

Re: "we'd probably already be dead"

Actually you die quite fast, tidal forces ripping our planet apart long before relativistic stuff starts to happen. We're quite ill equipped to live without a planet...

Re: "we'd probably already be dead"

> the nearest I know of is Sag A*

Don't mix stellar black holes and galactic black holes! Stellar black holes are common like dirt, they are the normal result of a fat star (any star > 3 solar masses) collapsing, while galactic ones (known as "Supermassive black holes") are the accretion of millions/billions of stellar black holes fused together, and have masses of millions/billions times our sun! They might be all black holes, but they are not in the same league. Sgr A* is (IIRC) around 10⁶ solar masses...

The ones potentially ejected from the Hyades are your garden variety stellar black holes, and would probably be 3 to a dozen solar masses. Quite compact, fiendishly difficult to spot unless you notice them wreaking havoc somewhere (and hopefully not in your own backyard)...

Re: "we'd probably already be dead"

> at what distance are we doomed by a passing star or black hole ?

Depends on its mass of course. The Oort cloud goes out to almost 3.5 light years, and it contains enough stuff to pelt us out of existence.

Black holes are usually remnants of big stars, so they tend to be rather hefty. The rest is a question of luck: One single large enough block of ice falling on us would suffice to send us the way of the dinosaurs. Or they could all miss us. Do you feel lucky?

James Webb spies distant exoplanet that could be wet, wild, and Hycean

Re: Danger, Will Robinson!

Don't forget "ocean" doesn't necessarily mean water. Could be liquefied gas (big gravity, huge pressure) or some hydrocarbon.

Life on such a planet would be definitely not similar to what we're used to, if only due to the crushing gravity and other fundamental differences with Earth (high pressure, high temperature, strange chemical compositions, probably strong solar radiation (or not), and so on). Nature would certainly find all kind of original solutions we haven't thought of.

Get ready to say hello to new Windows and goodbye to an old friend

Re: Interstimg...

> So nuking the "no-more non-MS-code" hopefully fixes one part of the problem.

Sure, and by making Windows unable to boot you would get rid of all the other problems too. No more bugs, crashes, no security issues, no lost data, heck, no data at all! Thanks to Microsoft's radical solution!

Germany's wild boars still too radioactive to eat largely due to Cold War nuke tests

Re: Please stop ffs....

> I fight boar with knives

Me too, but I'm patient enough to wait till they are finished cooking.

> A typical 70kg adult will contain about 4,000 Bequerels of K-40.

As in "disintegrations per second throughout the life of that person"! Big difference! If that was his instant radioactivity, he would be considered "high-level waste" and put in a spent fuel pool pending vitrification and long-term storage in a salt mine...

(To make it more relatable, 1 Bq = one click/second on the Geiger counter...)

Re: Hold the f'ing panic!

I disagree. You probably need to know exactly how to cook them (not my area of expertise), but I've eaten delicious wild boar (family hunts).

What happens when What3Words gets lost in translation?

Re: Jeepers.

Who, first thing, will ask you where you are.

And you'd better be more precise than "under the burning wreck of my car"...

Re: A new game

And where is what.three.words?

Right to repair advocates have a new opponent: Scientologists

Re: Trump's legal discards?

You don't need education, you need faith!

_{Must be the scariest joke I ever made.}

Re: $cientology $nakeoil?

> Still only measures response to stimuli and not mythical aliens

Why, mythical aliens are a stimulus like any other after all...